Morning Dues

I got invited to join a group going to Everland, the biggest theme park in South Korea. They said we’d meet up around 15:00 near the entrance, which gave me the morning to get some work done. I finally merged back the MR I’d been working on for two months, fixed a bug I encountered along the way, and wrote out some notes for my colleagues to read. Then at 13:00, I packed my bag with snacks, put on some warm clothes, and left for Everland.

Who Are These People?

The invite came from Sooyeon, who I met on 2025-10-21. She mentioned that some friends of hers — and a few people from a Digital Nomad community — were planning a group trip. I only knew her, but a spontaneous theme park day with a bunch of strangers sounded too good to pass up.

During the week, people kept being added to the WhatsApp group. The plans were… let’s say, “fluid.” I took the metro and then a bus, expecting to meet someone along the way, but I ended up arriving completely alone. Some people were already inside the park, others were still on their way. Classic group chaos.

Eventually, I got in, waited at the entrance, and slowly met up with the others as they trickled in. After a round of introductions, I handed out stroopwafels I’d brought from home specifically an occasion like this, and then the wild ride began.

Attractions

The park was enormous, and since it was a Monday, the lines were surprisingly short. We hit a bunch of rides, chatted while waiting, and quickly bonded. Funny enough, all the foreign guys in the group turned out to be software developers too — though we were all in Korea for completely different reasons.

The temperature had dropped quite a bit, down to a chilly 12°C. We warmed up with steaming bowls of Vietnamese pho and some fiery tteokbokki before heading back out for more rides.

As closing time approached, we all gathered at the bumper cars — and since there were 11 of us, we completely took over the ride. Crashing into each other and laughing uncontrollably was the perfect finale. Afterward, we huddled under some heating lamps, waiting for the K-pop Demon Hunters–themed fireworks show at 21:20, snapped a few group photos, and then sprinted to catch the last bus home.

I didn’t get back until 23:30, and I fell asleep almost immediately. Even though the group felt a bit thrown together at first, we clicked fast — and it turned into one of those perfect, unexpected adventure days that make a trip unforgettable.